With this operation the required orbit for the Vikram to commence its descent towards the surface of the Moon is achieved, ISRO said.

New Delhi: Chandrayaan-2 performed the second and final de-orbiting manoeuvre successfully on Wednesday. According to the Indian space agency ISRO, Vikaram’s second de-orbital operations began at 3.42 AM using the on-board propulsion system and was completed in nine seconds.

Notably, India’s first moon lander Vikram is all set to land on the moon on September 7.

” The second de-orbiting maneuver for #Chandrayan2 spacecraft was performed successfully today, beginning at 3:42 am as planned, using the on-board propulsion system. The duration of the maneuver was 9 seconds,” the ISRO said.

With this operation the required orbit for the Vikram to commence its descent towards the surface of the Moon is achieved, ISRO said.

According to the Indian space agency, Vikram is scheduled to powered descent between 1 AM – 2 AM on September 07.

The touchdown on the Moon’s south polar region will be between 1.30 AM – 2.30 AM, ISRO said.

After the moon touch down by Vikram, the rover Pragyan will roll down from the former to carry out the research for which it was designed.

The landing will make India only the fourth nation (after USA, Russia, and China) to land a rover on the Moon and the first one to do so on the lunar south pole.

Chandrayaan-2, which has been developed by the ISRO, was scheduled to be launched on July 15; however, the launch had to be called off due to a technical snag. It was later launched into space, a week later, on Mark-III, a Geo Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GLSV-MK III-M1), from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, in Sri Harikota, Andhra Pradesh.

The mission’s primary aim is to map the location and abundance of lunar water.